Saturday, October 07, 2006

A greener Sun

Sun Microsystems is a company whose fortunes I follow keenly. My fortunes are in many ways tied to it :)

Sun takes pride in the fact that they were(are) gurus of IT innovation. Even after the internet bubble burst, they were throwing huge chunks of money into R&D projects in the hope that things would stick and work magic. These days, the craziness has died down and the folks are busy building a cohesive product line and message. Innovating with a generous helping of practicality. Anyway...That is not the point of this post.

I was pleasantly surprised when a few months ago, Sun announced eco-responsibility(even when bottom line was bad). In their words...

"Sun is designing technology that consumes less, developing new metrics for measuring computing that include energy-efficiency alongside performance and changing the conversation with our customers by unveiling ways that eco-responsibility can benefit the bottom line as well as the earth we share"

David Douglas is the Vice President. Read his bio here.In a company where every employee is encouraged to blog, I am surprised that David Douglas does not have one! Atleast not yet. David's blog is here. His Marketing Communications Manager, Aaron Cohen has one too and it also makes for an interesting read

In August, Sun made some positive strides in green computing...

"Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: SUNW) today announced that Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), one of the largest natural gas and electric utilities in the United States serving 350,000 California businesses, is offering significant rebates as part of a new energy incentive program for computer servers. The CoolThreads technology Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers -- which are three to five times more energy efficient than competing systems and take up less space(1)-- were the only servers to qualify for the rebate program. As part of PG&EÂs Non Residential Retrofit program, customers replacing existing equipment with these eco-responsible servers can receive a cash savings between $700-$1000 per server or up to 35 percent when combined with the Sun Upgrade Advantage Program(2). This is the first-ever incentive rebate offered by a public utility company for servers"

A growing list of companies are taking up eco responsibility these days. Some are sincere in their efforts. Some just greenwash us all. I hope Sun stays on the good list.